Neck pain with headgear

I am so frustrated. In my 6th year with CPAP. Was doing good until about a year ago when my neck started bothering me. Unfortunately, this was also the period of time when my husband's health deteriorated and he passed away just after Thanksgiving. That was when my neck trouble really kicked in. Spent 1st four months of year trying to find out why my neck muscles were so tense and why I had pain when turning my head, thus limiting my range of motion (not good for driving). Went through lots of therapy, tests, chiropractic, change of pillow, etc. Nothing earth shattering except arthritis. Still having issues. I blame it all on the headgear. I have two different masks. Dreamwear and Amara View, both full face. The strap comes right across the mastoid tip of my skull and that is where my problem is. I cannot wear nasal pillows or nasal only mask as I am a mouth breather. I have some other issues that preclude most other masks and believe me, I've tried them all. At any rate, I find I wake up with my neck hurting every morning and frequently, it wakes me up during the night and then I take the mask off. I just don't know what to do. I am thinking about trying a mouth device out of desperation. Any thoughts?

sorry for your loss. and sorry about the neck pain.

i don't have any solid advice to give you. but i'm thinking that you might want to go to cpap.com and have a look at various masks there. you might see something there that looks like it would be more comfortable.

meanwhile, i'm sure someone will be along shortly with a strong recommendation.

good luck!

Do you ever find yourself waking up in a sleeping position that's different from the one you were in when first lying down?

I personally find the Fisher & Paykel Simplus mask to work pretty well. With the headgear and mask on I can actually only sleep facing one way, which helps me limit my rolling around and unknowingly changing my body alignment during the night. I also find with the Simplus that you can get away with keeping the headgear straps pretty loose, without much leaking. It also happens to be a very quiet mask for a full face cushion. Unfortunately the headgear is not what I would call minimalist in any way, but it at least has 3 separate points of adjustment from top to bottom.

But of course, every mask varies wildly among users. For example, ResMed F20 claims to fit 97% of faces (I am summarizing, this may not be wholly accurate), and I must be one of the unlucky souls where it just does not work.

I wonder if you would benefit from a soft cervical collar. They are cheap so it may be worth a try.

I ordered the Dr Dakota neck brace and it will arrive tomorrow. With all the masks that I have tried they all hit at the same spot. And, yes, I do change positions. I mostly sleep on my right side and the mask itself works great. It does leak if I am flat on my back. I change between the Amara View and the Dreamwear. It makes me not even want to go to bed when I know my neck will be killing me in the morning.

Slept with my new Dr Dakota neck brace last night. OMG! What a sight! Between the CPAP mask and this brace it's almost too much. Anyway, it is very comfortable and I slept 7 hours straight and did not have a mouth like the Sahara desert this morning so I guess it kept my mouth shut. My neck seems to be a little better too. Stay tuned.

sabca wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 03, 2018 2:46 pm

Slept with my new Dr Dakota neck brace last night. OMG! What a sight! Between the CPAP mask and this brace it's almost too much. Anyway, it is very comfortable and I slept 7 hours straight and did not have a mouth like the Sahara desert this morning so I guess it kept my mouth shut. My neck seems to be a little better too. Stay tuned.

excellent! always good to hear first hand stories about neck braces and such.

Another solid 7 hours of sleep with no dry mouth using the neck brace.

I placed an order for Dakota's last Friday and received it on Labor Day (through Amazon Prime). I didn't try it until Wednesday night, after reading this thread.
My events were lower (AHI 0.5 instead of the usual 1.5 - 2.5) and my neck felt good the next morning, so I tried it again last night. I had good results again.

It's too soon to know for sure if it's the Dakota or if I'm just going through a phase of lower events. (I periodically have several nights in a row where my AHI index is low.)
I'll update again in a month or so when I have more data.

weroberts75 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 07, 2018 9:48 am

I placed an order for Dakota's last Friday and received it on Labor Day (through Amazon Prime). I didn't try it until Wednesday night, after reading this thread.
My events were lower (AHI 0.5 instead of the usual 1.5 - 2.5) and my neck felt good the next morning, so I tried it again last night. I had good results again.

It's too soon to know for sure if it's the Dakota or if I'm just going through a phase of lower events. (I periodically have several nights in a row where my AHI index is low.)
I'll update again in a month or so when I have more data.

I only used the Dakota collar for about a week. My AHI was the lowest it had been since switching to a full mask; however, the Dakota seemed to put a lot of pressure on my shoulders.
I was using the small one, and it seemed to fit correctly, but it still left my neck and shoulders a bit sore after five or six nights of use.

I think if I only slept on my back, I might be willing to give the Dakota another try; however, I get a much deeper sleep with the SomniFix sleep strips.

weroberts75 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 28, 2018 8:23 am

weroberts75 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 07, 2018 9:48 am

I placed an order for Dakota's last Friday and received it on Labor Day (through Amazon Prime). I didn't try it until Wednesday night, after reading this thread.
My events were lower (AHI 0.5 instead of the usual 1.5 - 2.5) and my neck felt good the next morning, so I tried it again last night. I had good results again.

It's too soon to know for sure if it's the Dakota or if I'm just going through a phase of lower events. (I periodically have several nights in a row where my AHI index is low.)
I'll update again in a month or so when I have more data.

I only used the Dakota collar for about a week. My AHI was the lowest it had been since switching to a full mask; however, the Dakota seemed to put a lot of pressure on my shoulders.
I was using the small one, and it seemed to fit correctly, but it still left my neck and shoulders a bit sore after five or six nights of use.

I think if I only slept on my back, I might be willing to give the Dakota another try; however, I get a much deeper sleep with the SomniFix sleep strips.

thanks for the update. and sorry it didn't work out for you. do you think it was simply too rigid?

zonker wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 28, 2018 11:29 am

weroberts75 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 28, 2018 8:23 am

weroberts75 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 07, 2018 9:48 am

I placed an order for Dakota's last Friday and received it on Labor Day (through Amazon Prime). I didn't try it until Wednesday night, after reading this thread.
My events were lower (AHI 0.5 instead of the usual 1.5 - 2.5) and my neck felt good the next morning, so I tried it again last night. I had good results again.

It's too soon to know for sure if it's the Dakota or if I'm just going through a phase of lower events. (I periodically have several nights in a row where my AHI index is low.)
I'll update again in a month or so when I have more data.

I only used the Dakota collar for about a week. My AHI was the lowest it had been since switching to a full mask; however, the Dakota seemed to put a lot of pressure on my shoulders.
I was using the small one, and it seemed to fit correctly, but it still left my neck and shoulders a bit sore after five or six nights of use.

I think if I only slept on my back, I might be willing to give the Dakota another try; however, I get a much deeper sleep with the SomniFix sleep strips.

thanks for the update. and sorry it didn't work out for you. do you think it was simply too rigid?

That was what I felt. However, if it hadn't been so rigid, it probably wouldn't have kept my mouth closed. I think it is probably something that would work for a lot of people.
It looked like, in the reviews that I read elsewhere, that about half of those who tried it loved it and the other half hated it. It's definitely worth a shot if nothing else is that great.

Several thoughts. Put heat on it. I once had an incredible amount of pain with the joint where the jaw goes together. Unusual joint in that it is meant to go not just up and down, but front to back. A former dentist said to use my first two fingers to massage joint in a circular fashion for three minutes several times a day. I was so sure it would not help, I barely tried it. Got more desperate, and it then found it helped a lot.

Put simple rags under the strap at the point of pain. Anything to spread out the strap and the edge of the strap pressure points. This is also the issue with the straps getting older, and thereby losing their elasticity. Which is why I think I need straps more often than allowed by Medicare. Rules made by book keepers to save money.

Much of that problem got much better with a Bi-Level machine. Still I get some odd issues.

Pains in the head can be reflected pain. Like little sores behind my ears (from glasses) can cause, really strong pain in other parts of my head, at what seems to be random spots.

Anything like an infection in my jaw can cause pain in other places. Really strange but true.

FYI: One doctor told me not to use a soft cervical collar every day as a permanent thing. Creates another problem, but what do doctors know.

If you can afford a bit of money, then talk to my old friend Karen at http://www.padacheek.com/ She can help build something specific for your needs. I have dealt with her and she is an honest person with good products. I have no financial interest. Karen AKA Padacheek is well known on the forum for being a fair and honest business person. She has a lot of experience with unusual issues.

weroberts75 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 11, 2018 7:48 am

That was what I felt. However, if it hadn't been so rigid, it probably wouldn't have kept my mouth closed. I think it is probably something that would work for a lot of people.
It looked like, in the reviews that I read elsewhere, that about half of those who tried it loved it and the other half hated it. It's definitely worth a shot if nothing else is that great.

thanks for that. my cervical collar is starting get too mushy with use and i was just thinking the other day i should give the dakota a try.

so thanks to you posting this, it reminded me to get over to amazon and order it!

zonker wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 11, 2018 11:04 am

weroberts75 wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 11, 2018 7:48 am

That was what I felt. However, if it hadn't been so rigid, it probably wouldn't have kept my mouth closed. I think it is probably something that would work for a lot of people.
It looked like, in the reviews that I read elsewhere, that about half of those who tried it loved it and the other half hated it. It's definitely worth a shot if nothing else is that great.

thanks for that. my cervical collar is starting get too mushy with use and i was just thinking the other day i should give the dakota a try.

so thanks to you posting this, it reminded me to get over to amazon and order it!

You're welcome. By the way, I had the small (regular size). I'm a medium sized guy and there's no way the large would even fit under my chin.